Update: San Francisco Symphony Musicians are on still Strike—Sunday’s Mahler Concert Cancelled, status of East Coast tour will be announced later today
Today’s (Sunday) 2 p.m. scheduled San Francisco Symphony (SFS) concert at Davies Hall of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 has been cancelled. With just three days before their East Coast tour, the orchestra members, who announced their strike on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, are still on strike. Late night negotiations continue and the musicians have been asked to bring their instruments in to be packed up for the three-city tour in the event a settlement is reached today. The Symphony will give word later today about the status of the tour. (Read ARThound’s earlier coverage here.)
Along with higher salaries, the musicians are seeking increases in benefits and pension contributions commensurate with the nation’s other premiere orchestras and to offset the high cost of living in the Bay Area. SFS administration and the Musicians Union of San Francisco, Local 6, representing the 103 musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, have been in intense negotiations over the musicians’ three-year contract since Wednesday. The orchestra is supposed to leave on Tuesday for two concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall, one in Newark, N.J., and one at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Read about the concerns of the musicians’ union here.
Read the latest SFS administration press release here.
Patrons can obtain up-to-the-minute information on concerts, ticket exchanges and customer service by calling the Symphony Box Office at (415) 864-6000 and on the Orchestra’s website at www.sfsymphony.org/press.
Seeking commensurate pay raises and benefits, San Francisco Symphony Musicians are on Strike—Thursday’s Mahler Concert Cancelled
As a way of emphasizing that the Los Angeles Symphony treats its musicians better than does San Francisco, during a protest on Tuesday, members of the string quartet wore Los Angeles Dodgers caps and placed a San Francisco Giants hat on the floor between them.
Just a day before four scheduled concerts at Davies Hall of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 and one week before an East Coast tour, the San Francisco Symphony orchestra announced this morning that they are on strike. Their contract expired in expired in November 2012, but was extended to February when, by mutual agreement, the musicians continued negotiating and playing. This morning, the Musicians Union of San Francisco, Local 6, representing musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, rejected the administration’s latest proposal for a three-year contract. In a press conference today, SFS administration said that their proposed contract keeps SFS musicians among the three highest-paid orchestras in the country.” (The Chicago Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic are the other two orchestras). The current average salary of the musicians is $165,000, according to SFS administration.
SFS musicians’ current base pay is $141,700 each year, and they receive 10 weeks of paid vacation.
The latest SFS administration proposal offered a minimum base yearly salary of $141,700 in the first year, with multi-year increases to $144,560 by the end of the proposed contract. During the most recent four-year contract, the musicians’ base minimum pay increased by 17.3%, an average of 4.3% per year. In addition to the minimum base salary, other musician compensation— radio payments, over-scale, and seniority— raises the current annual average pay for SFS musicians to over $165,000 SFS administration reported.
Along with higher salaries, the musicians are seeking increases in benefits and pension contributions. They claim that pay and benefits need to be commensurate with other top orchestras and in accord with the high cost of living in the Bay Area.
SFS administration will present a revised proposal to the orchestra members on Thursday in hopes that the San Francisco concerts can resume on Friday and the East Coast tour can proceed. The 103-member orchestra is supposed to leave next Tuesday for two concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall, one in Newark, N.J., and one at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Patrons can obtain up-to-the-minute information on concerts, ticket exchanges and customer service by calling the Symphony Box Office at (415) 864-6000 and on the Orchestra’s website at www.sfsymphony.org/press.
Pianist Yuja Wang—young, fun, impeccable—joins Michael Tilson Thomas & San Francisco Symphony at Green Music Center this Thursday, March 7, 2013
Chinese pianist Yuja Wang is known for her colorfully explosive playing and tight, bright, short dresses. She performs on the Green Music Center’s Steinway with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, Thursday, March 7, 2013, at Weill Hall.
Yuja Wang, the young Chinese pianist legendary for her dazzling playing, performs at the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall Thursday night with Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). The diverse program includes two well-known works— Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4 and Brahms Symphony No. 1—and one modern piece, Samuel Carl Adams’ “Drift and Providence.” Adams, a Brooklyn resident, is the 26-year-old son of composer John Adams, a part-time Sonoma Coast resident, who, along with SFS, won a 2103 Grammy Award in the category of Best Orchestral Performance for a live recording of Adams works.
This is the third of four SFS concerts at Weill Hall this inaugural season and marks MTT’s second concert appearance at the Green Music Center (GMC). At 26, Yuja Wang is the youngest musician to perform at Weill Hall in the MasterCard Performance Series and demand for tickets has been overwhelming for this performance as well as for the her three SFS Davies Hall performances on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Also on stage will be three SFS musicians who are based in Sonoma County—violist Wayne Roden of Cotati, percussionist Tom Hemphill who lives in a rural unincorporated area near the Washoe House, and bass player Chris Gilbert of Petaluma. (For ARThound’s profile of these musicians upon their first appearance at Weill Hall, click here.) Recognizing that getting to know a concert hall is really alot like getting to know a person—it’s only over time that you start to ntoice things —ARThound grabbed the chance to gather some further impressions about the experience of playing Weill Hall.
“I really like Weill Hall and I’ve heard almost completely positive comments from all of my colleagues,” said violist Wayne Roden, who spoke to me from his home in rural Cotati. “I like the way it looks and feels and sounds. It’s just a beautiful place to play and that really does make a difference. A lot of modern halls are not that inviting. We play the best of them when we are on tour and this one is particularly nice, especially the sense of light and warmth.”
The acoustics also get a thumbs up, with an interesting caveat that only a seasoned musician can provide. “It’s very nice—it’s warm, live, and it feels good to play there,” said Roden. “Having played there now a few time times, I’ve experienced something I didn’t notice before—when you are on stage, there’s a little bit of the feeling that you hear yourself more than you would ideally like. This is not the only hall where I have experienced that. In the ideal world, you like to hear a warm sound and the sound of the whole. You do hear the whole quite well in Weill Hall but, in acoustical terms, there’s a slight feeling of isolation. It feels a little bit naked which has a slightly inhibiting effect for me because I am hyper aware of what I am putting out. One of the toughest things you have to do as a player in an orchestra is to balance expressing yourself—you try to put out musically, emotionally—while fitting into the whole. Some people err on the side of being careful and some err on the side of being expressive, which means they go for it and stick out. In an orchestra as good as SFS, you’ve got most people hitting the middle but that’s the art of playing in an orchestra. The acoustics of a hall can really impact that.”
Thursday’s program is quite varied musically and includes two pieces—Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4 and Brahms Symphony No. 1— which are standard sympony repertoire. Of course, under MTT’s skilled conducting, the audience can expect magic from the Bay Area’s treasured orchestra.
“When you know pieces this well it’s very easy to fall into habits of playing and so it’s a question of whether you can find something vital in it each time and that’s the challenge of both the conductor and the musician,” said Roden. “Musicians are a kind of tabula rasa for the conductor and we kind of give ourselves over to him. I really think that a conductor can bring something to the moment emotionally and conceptually and that can make a huge difference in pieces that are standard repertoire.”
Program: Michael Tilson Thomas conductor, Yuja Wang piano, San Francisco Symphony
Samuel Carl Adams | \Drift and Providence
Beethoven | Piano Concerto No.4 in G major, Opus 58
Brahms | Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Opus 68
Beethoven’s No. 4, a Piano Classic: After its public premiere in December 1808 in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien, a review in the May 1809 edition of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung stated that Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major “is the most admirable, singular, artistic and complex Beethoven concerto ever.” Widely considered to be one of the central works of the piano concerto today, the No. 4 begins unconventionally—instead of entering after a lengthy wait, the solo instrument, the piano, starts the piece off by playing in almost improvisational style before the orchestra gently takes over and develops it. The second movement has a particularly distinct and intimate dialog between piano and orchestra as the serene and lyrical piano line is met with restless strings that mellow as the conversation continues. The piece is made to order as a showcase for Wang’s astounding technique and imagination, MTT’s strong conducting and for SFS and, of course, Weill Hall and its wondrous Steinway.
A strong mentor in MTT: Michael Tilson Thomas and Yuja Wang have a particularly close collaboration that began in 2006 when she, then 19, made her debut with the SFS at its annual Chinese New Year concert. Since then, she has returned to perform with SFS each year and performed on tour with MTT and the Orchestra in Macau, Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo in November 2012. In 2008, Wang performed as a soloist with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra led by MTT at Carnegie Hall.
In the YouTube clip below, Yuja Wang talks about her working relationship with MTT. The clip was made in 2011, to mark several performances Yang would have with MTT and SFS that year.
More about Yuja Wang: Born in Beijing in 1987, Wang began studying piano at age six, with her earliest public performances taking place in China, Australia and Germany. She studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing under Ling Yuan and Zhou Guangren. From 1999 to 2001 she participated in the Morningside Music summer program at Calgary’s Mount Royal College, an artistic and cultural exchange program between Canada and China, and began studying with Hung Kuan Chen and Tema Blackstone at the Mount Royal College Conservatory. In 2002, when she was 15, she won Aspen Music Festival’s concerto competition. She then moved to the U.S. to study with Gary Graffman at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she graduated in 2008. In 2006 Yuja received the Gilmore Young Artist Award. In 2010 she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) conducts the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra at Weill Hall on December 6, 2012, in their first of four concerts this season. In Feburary, , the Orchestra’s recording of Bay Area composer John Adams’ works won a 2013 Grammy Award, the 15th Grammy win for SFS. Photo: courtesy SFS
Her acclaimed recordings include Transformation, for which she received an Echo Award 2011 as Young Artist of the Year. Wang next collaborated with Claudio Abbado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra to record Rachmaninoff, her first concerto album featuring Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, which was nominated for a Grammy® as Best Classical Instrumental Solo. Her most recent recording, Fantasia, is a collection of encore pieces by Albéniz, Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Saint-Saëns, Scriabin and others.
CD’s for Sale: A selection of CDs by Yuja Wang and SFS will be sold before the cocnert and during intermission in Weill Hall’s Person Lobby. The lobby is named after Evert and Norma Person, long-time Santa Rosa Symphony patrons.
PRE-CONCERT TALK: Interested in going deeper? One hour prior to the concert, Alexandra amati-Camperi will give an “Inside Music” talk from the stage all about the repertoire. Free to all concert ticket holders; doors open 15 minutes before, or 6:45 p.m.
Program Notes: Downloadable concert program notes can be found online here.
Upcoming SFS Performances at Weill Hall: The Orchestra’s four-concert series for GMC concludes Thursday, May 23 at 8 pm David Robertson conductor, Marc-André Hamelin piano, San Francisco Symphony
Elliott Carter Variations for Orchestra
Ravel Piano Concerto in D major for the Left Hand
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
Ravel La Valse
Details: The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra performs Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 8 pm at Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall, Green Music Center, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park.
Tickets: $15-$145. Tickets are still available at www.sfsymphony.org or by phone at 415-864-6000
New Fees SSU Parking: Parking is $10 for the lot nearest Weill Hall. Have cash ready to hand attendants as you drive in. All other SSU general parking lots have had a rate increase to $5, and a parking receipt must now be displayed all 7 days of the week, no exceptions.
Green Music Center is on a roll! Up Thursday—Charles Dutoit conducts the San Francisco Symphony with guest violinist James Ehnes
Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit conducts the San Francisco Symphony in the second of a four concert series at Weill Hall on Thursday, January 31, 2013. Photo: courtesy SF Symphony.
Those who experienced Yo Yo Ma’s soulful performance at Weill Hall on Saturday with pianist Kathyrn Stott walked away with another unforgettable Green Music Center moment. Along with many in the audience, I was pierced early on—Stravinsky’s “Suite Italienne” and the Serenata drew streams of tears. By the second half, and Piazzolla’s exquisite “Oblivion,” I was deep in melancholy and revelation. What a wonderful opportunity we now have to hear the world’s finest musicians at our doorstep. And what a doorstep it is! Since the center’s gala opening on the weekend of September 29-30, 2012, the lineup, thanks in large part to Robert Cole (Cal Performances’ recently retired booking czar) , has featured the world’s finest musicians— Joyce DiDonato, Stephanie Blythe, Alison Krauss, Buika, Lang Lang, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra—and that’s just the first three months.
Up this Thursday at Green Music Center—and seats are still available—is the San Francisco Symphony’s second concert in its four concert series at GMC. Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit conducts the San Francisco Symphony with guest violinist James Ehnes. Lalo’s Spanish heritage and Ravel’s Basque roots are richly explored in “Rapsodie espagnole” and “Symphonie espagnole”— savory, evocative works that promise a workout for the Stradivarius of Canadian violinist James Ehnes, who’s been called “the Heifetz of our day.” Ehnes’ beautiful intonation, technique and sensitivity for the music should all come across in the warm, intimate-feeling Weill Hall whose acoustics are proving to be especially well-suited to the nuances of string instruments. Elgar’s ever-popular “Enigma Variations” concludes the 2 hour program.
PROGRAM: Chlares Dutoit conductor, James Ehnes violin, SF Symphony
Ravel | Rapsodie espagnole (~15 min) (for James M. Keller’s program notes, click here.)
Lalo | Symphonie espagnole, Opus 21 (~30 min) (for Michael Steinberg’s program notes, click here.)
Elgar | Enigma Variations, Opus 36 (~ 30 min) (for Michael Steinberg’s program notes, click here.)
Canadian violinist James Ehnes performs with the San Francisco Symphony with Charles Dutoit conducting on Thursday, January 31, 2013 at the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall. Photo: courtesy SF Symphony.
PRE-CONCERT TALK: Interested in going deeper? One hour prior to the concert, an “Inside Music” talk from the stage with Susan Key on some aspect of the performance will be given. Free to all concert ticket holders; doors open 15 minutes before, or 6:45 p.m.
CD SIGNING: James Ehnes will sign his CDs immediately following the performance on January 31 in Weill Hall’s Person Lobby. The lobby is named after Evert and Norma Person, long-time Santa Rosa Symphony patrons.
AUDIO PROGRAM NOTES: A free audio podcast about Elgar’s Enigma Variations is downloadable from sfsymphony.org/podcasts and from the iTunes store.
BROADCAST: These concerts will be broadcast on Classical 89.9/90.3/104.9 KDFC and kdfc.com on Tuesday, February 12 at 8 pm.
Details: The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra performs Thursday, January 31, 2013 at 8 pm at Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall, Green Music Center, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park.
Tickets: $15-$145. Tickets are available at www.sfsymphony.org or by phone at 415-864-6000 or in person at the Davies Symphony Hall Box Office on Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street in San Francisco or at the Green Music Center Box Office located on the first floor of the SSU Student Union in the interior of the Sonoma State University Campus.
New Fees SSU Parking: Parking is $10 for the lot nearest Weill Hall. Have cash ready to hand attendants as you drive in. All other SSU general parking lots have had a rate increase to $5, and a parking receipt must now be displayed all 7 days of the week, no exceptions.
Here is Ehnes on YouTube playing gorgeous passages on irreplaceable 18th century instruments from the Fulton Collection of Violins and Violas.
Most of us consider ourselves lucky to hear a Stradivarius or Guarneri in a concert setting as fine as Weill Hall, but Grammy-winning James Ehnes was chosen to play some of these treasured instruments under very unusual circumstances. David Fulton, who spent a great of his life playing and enjoying the violin, sold his very profitable Fox Software company to Microsoft in the early 1980’s for $173 million. He used the money he made to buy the most precious violins, violas, and cellos to be had. Crafted by Antonio Stradivari, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù and a handful of other 18th-century Italian masters in and around Cremona, the Fulton Collection has been deemed the world’s greatest private collection by a number of experts. James Ehnes met Fulton back in the 1990’s in Seattle when he came to play in a chamber music festival. He gradually developed a close friendship with Fulton and his wife, and played chamber music with them. Fulton purchased a famous Stradivari violin— ex-Marsick—with which Ehnes had fallen in love, and loaned it to Ehnes to use as his main concert violin. The idea to have him road test these rare instruments, showing off their unique qualities was born out of this special relationship. This is a clip from a magical and highly successful DVD/CD Homage (2008, Onyx) that captures the whole glorious experience and Ehnes’ virtuosity.
Upcoming SFS Performances at Weill Hall: The Orchestra’s four-concert series for GMC also includes performances on March 7, and May 23, 2013
Thursday, March 7 at 8 pm: Michael Tilson Thomas conductor, Yuja Wang piano, San Francisco Symphony
Berio Eindrücke
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Opus 58
Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Opus 68
Thursday, May 23 at 8 pm David Robertson conductor, Marc-André Hamelin piano, San Francisco Symphony
Elliott Carter Variations for Orchestra
Ravel Piano Concerto in D major for the Left Hand
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
Ravel La Valse
Soprano Renée Fleming is in San Francisco for the next week—there are several chances to hear her at Davies Hall—special recital with Susan Graham next Wednesday, January 16, 2013
America’s regal soprano, Renée Fleming, will perform an all French program, including a new Debussy arrangement, on January 10, 12 and13, and in duo recital with Susan Graham on January 16, 2013, both at Davies Symphony Hall. Photo: @Decca/Andrew Eccles
Lyric soprano Renée Fleming has long captivated audiences with her sumptuous voice, consummate artistry, accessibility, and joie de vivre. While opera is clearly her sweet spot, you can’t help but admire this Grammy-winning soprano for her sense of experimentation. She cut her first rock album Dark Hope in 2010 at age 51 and hasn’t slacked off one bit in the classical realm. In October, she drew tears with her tender “Ave Maria” as Desdemona in Verdi’s “Otello” at the Metropolitan Opera. She opened her Met career with this challenging role 17 years ago. In December 2012, she was nominated for a Grammy for “Poèmes,” her visceral album of French works for soprano and orchestra. Bay Area audiences are in for a special treat this week as Fleming returns to Davies Symphony Hall Thursday, Saturday and Sunday with an all French program of orchestral songs by Debussy and Canteloube, with Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). And next Wednesday, at Davies, Fleming will perform a duo recital of French works by Debussy, Fauré, and Saint-Saëns with the legendary mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and pianist Bradley Moore. In addition to singing, there’ll be ample opportunity to meet both Fleming and Graham as they sign cd’s following Wednesday’s performance.
MTT & Renée Fleming, January 10, 12, 13, 2013: Davies Symphony Hall: Michael Tilson Thomas leads SFS and soprano Renée Fleming in the world premiere of Robin Holloway’s arrangement, commissioned by the SFS, of Debussy’s C’est l’extase. Fleming also performs selections from Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, and the Orchestra performs Debussy’s Jeux and La Mer. Approximate length: 2 hours
C’est l’extase is Robin Holloway’s new orchestration of Debussy’s settings of the poems of French 19th century poet Paul Verlaine; the cycle includes the six Debussy titled Ariettes oubliées. An SFS commission, the work receives its world premiere in these performances. Previously, SFS and MTT have commissioned and premiered three works by composer Robin Holloway, including Clarissa Sequence (1998), the Fourth Concerto for Orchestra (2007), and 2004’s En blanc et noir, an orchestration of a Debussy work for two pianos that the Orchestra performed on tour in the US and Europe. Holloway taught music at Cambridge University for 32 years, and his students included Judith Weir and Thomas Adès.
Debussy Jeux
Debussy (arr. Robin Holloway) C’est l’extase (Settings of Paul Verlaine) (SFS Commission, world premiere)
Canteloube Selections from Chants d’Auvergne: “La Delaïssádo,” “Malurous qu’o uno fenno,” “Baïlèro”
Debussy La Mer
Pre-Concert Talk: Peter Grunberg will give an “Inside Music” talk from the stage one hour prior to each concert. Free to all concert ticket holders; doors open 15 minutes before.
Audio Program Notes: A free audio podcast about Debussy’s La Mer will be downloadable from sfsymphony.org/podcasts and from the iTunes store.
Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, January 12, 2013 at 8 p.m.; Sunday, January 13, 2013 at 2 p.m.
Mezzo Soprano Susan Graham will perform a selection of French art songs in duo recital with Renée Fleming on January 16, 2013 at Davies symphony Hall. Part of a month long tour with Fleming, this is Graham’s only Bay Area performance in the 2012-13 season. Photo: @Dario Acosta
Renée Fleming and Susan Graham, Davies Symphony Hall, Wednesday, January 16, 2012 at 7 p.m: Their pairing in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier in 2000 and 2009 at the Metropolitan Opera was kismet. Since then, whenever Renée Fleming and Susan Graham team up, they create magic. Davies is the first stop in their new month-long cross country tour and these celebrated all-American divas will perform a light-hearted program of 19th century French song literature. This is Graham’s only Bay Area performance in the 2012-13 season. Eight composers, ranging from the romantic Hector Berloiz to the fin-de-siècle Raynaldo Hahn and André Messager, will be featured. French composers from this period were mesmerized by lure of the exotic as were their audiences and, running through these pieces, you’ll hear references to Spain and even India. Bradley Moore will accompany on piano. Approximate length: 2 hours
Saint-Saëns Pastorale, “Viens! Une flute invisible,” and “El desdichado” (Ms. Fleming, Ms. Graham)
Fauré “Piusqu’ici-bas tout âme”, Opus 10, no.1, “Pleurs d’or”, Opus 72, Pavane, Opus 50, and Tarentelle, Opus 10, no.2 (Ms. Fleming, Ms. Graham)
Debussy Claire de lune (Mr. Moore)
Debussy “Mandoline” “Beau soir” (Ms. Fleming)
O. Straus “Je t’aime quand meme” from Trois valses (Ms. Fleming)
Hahn “Le Rossignol” “Infidélité” “Fêtes galantes” “Le Printemps” (Ms. Graham)
Berlioz “La mort d’Ophélie”, Opus 18, no.2 (Ms. Fleming, Ms. Graham)
Messager “Blanche-Marie et Marie-Blanche” from Les p’tites Michu (Ms. Fleming, Ms. Graham)
Offenbach Barcarolle from Les contes d’Hoffmann (Ms. Fleming, Ms. Graham)
Delibes Duo des fleurs from Lakmé (Ms. Fleming, Ms. Graham)
CD signing: Meet Renée Fleming and Susan Graham at a CD signing in the Symphony Store following the concert.
More about Susan Graham: Those who attend the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD performances—at Sebastopol’s Rialto Cinemas for Sonoma County—were able to experience Susan Graham in full force last week as Dido in Berlioz’s rarely performed French opera of Trojan War, Les Troyens. Slam dunk! Dido calls for every emotion imaginable—from the agonizing disappointment and hurt of Aeneas’ abandonment to palpable moments of shared tenderness, love and respect. Graham poured forth, taking up the reins held by legendary Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson whose last remarkable performances at the Met in 2003 defined the role. But seeing Graham on screen in a movie theatre is one thing and interacting with her live is another. This is Graham’s only performance in the Bay Area in 2013 and is not to be missed.
Susan Graham as Dido in Act V of Berloiz’s Les Toyens, conducted by Fabio Luisi; produced by Francesca Zambello. 2012-13 season. Video: Metropolitan Opera. Graham is featured on SFS Media’s 2010 release Mahler Songs with Orchestra, singing selections from Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder. In October 2012, Graham released her first solo album since 2008, a compilation on Onyx titled Virgins, Vixens & Viragos, featuring music by Purcell, Berlioz, and Poulenc, among others.
Getting to Davies : Davies Symphony Hall is located at 201 Van Ness Avenue at Grove Street, in San Francisco’s Civic Center, just across the street from City Hall. The main entrance is on the south side of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street. Driving to San Francisco and Parking: Be sure to allow ample time when driving into San Francisco on the weekend and crossing the Golden Gate Bridge—on weekends, there can be a 15 to 30 minute back-up on Highway 101 South from Sausalito onwards due to congestion around the toll-plaza. Arrive early at your parking garage of choice because those also fill up on weekends. Recommended Garages: Two garages are very close to Davies— the Performing Arts Garage (1/2 block)(Grove Street between Franklin and Gough Streets) and Civic Center Garage (roughly 2 blocks) (McAllister Street between Polk and Larken Streets) (both have flat $15 pay cash as you enter policy on performance nights)
Tickets and information: www.sfsymphony.org , by phone at (415) 864-6000. Half-price tickets for children 17 and under are available for certain performances.
ARThound is back from London
Dining on the Move: ARThound experiences the golden age of travel on the luxurious British Pullman, sister train to the legendary Venice Simplon Orient-Express. As the vintage train departs London’s Victoria’s rail station for a journey into Britain’s countryside, passengers are served chilled champagne and sumptuous cuisine. What hat to wear? One co-created with uber-trendy London milliner, Katherine Elizabeth, who designed the hat for the new Kate Middleton doll.
The Summer Olympics in London ended last Sunday and ARThound is back–with dozens of stories to tell. Not only did I attend the games, but I also participated in the London 2012 Festival, part of Britain’s larger Cultural Olympiad, which continues through September 9, 2012, the final day of the Paralympic Games. The London 2012 Festival is actually a countrywide event that features an estimated 12,000 performances including art exhibitions, theatrical performances and classical concerts. What a marvelous time to visit England–when everyone was celebrating and freebies were falling from the skies! Stay tuned to ARThound for interviews with London insiders, celebs, curators, foodies, including Ernst Vegelin, Head of The Courtauld Gallery and Lady Fiona Carnarvon, the down-to-earth duchess who actually lives at Downton Abbey (Highclere Castle).
Magnificent Mahler–MTT and the San Francisco Symphony warm up at Davies for their Euro tour, series ends this weekend with Mahler’s No. 6
MTT--Michael Tilson Thomas-- and the San Francisco Symphony celebrate Mahler in performances of the 9th, 2nd and 6th Symphonies May 5-14, 2011. Photo: courtesy Michael Tilson Thomas
For all those lucky enough to nab tickets to Sunday’s sold-out performance of MTT leading SFS in Mahler’s No. 2, Resurrection, the performance did all the talking necessary. No one knows how or why sometimes magic happens…but Sunday it all came together—orchestra, chorus, soloists (Karina Gauvin soprano and Jill Grove mezzo-soprano —I closed my eyes and floated in glory…aware of the distinctive sound coming from each and every section of the orchestra and singers and the wonderment of their combined flair and flow. The SFS Chorus under Ragnar Bohlin’s direction though deserves special mention…its impressive entrance in the final (5th) movement was awesome–pure theatre–as its 140 members sang unaccompanied “Aufersteh’n” (“Rise again”) ushering in the resurrection theme and climax which soprano, mezzo soprano and full orchestra joined to bring the piece to end. Something so near perfect raises the bar, even for MTT. Now that he’s headed off with SFS and soprano Laura Claycomb and mezzo-soprano Katarina Karnéus for the big European tour (15 concerts in Prague, Vienna, Brussels, Luxemburg, Essen, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid and Lisbon), commemorating the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death, it’s nice to know that we here at home got the smetana (that’s Czech for cream).
There’s still time to grab tickets for MTT conducting SFS in Mahler’s 6th Symphony in A minor this coming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Davies Symphony Hall. This is the third and final set of performances in the splendid Mahler series that has run at Davies since May 5, 2011. Composed in 1903-04, Mahler’s No. 6–a passionate, relentlessly tragic and terrifying masterwork–culminates with “three blows of fate” sounded by a hammer in the last (4th) movement. This is the very symphony that launched SFS’s recording cycle in 2001. And, now ten years later, SFS has just finished the final recording of its complete Mahler cycle on its own label, SFS Media, including all nine of the Mahler’s symphonies, the Adagio from Symphony No. 10, and Mahler’s works for voice, chorus and orchestra. The cycle has won seven Grammy® Awards, including three for Best Classical Album. But, as Sunday’s unforgettable concert proved, nothing beats the excitement of experiencing music live. Mahler’s No. 6 is replete with sudden juxtapositions of contrasting mood and tempo. It opens with a grim march and is later filled with the sound of cowbells, harps and a portrait of Alma, Mahler’s wife. I can’t wait.
And if find yourself in Vienna’s regal Konzerthaus on May 21-25, Tilson Thomas and the orchestra will perform Symphonies Nos. 2, 6, and 9 as part of the city’s Mahler commemoration, occurring just days from the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death.
Michael Tilson Thomas, conducts San Francisco Symphony Mahler/Symphony No. 6 in A minor
Thursday, May 12 at 8 p.m.
Friday, May 13 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 14 at 8 p.m.
PRE-CONCERT TALK: Peter Grunberg will give an “Inside Music” talk from the stage one hour prior to each concert. Free to all concert ticket holders; doors open 15 minutes before.
AUDIO PROGRAM NOTES: A free audio podcast about Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 will be downloadable from sfsymphony.org and from the iTunes store.
BROADCAST: Portions of these concerts will be broadcast on Classical KDFC 89.9/90.3 FM on Tuesday, May 24 at 8:00 p.m.
TICKETS: $15-$140; available at www.sfsymphony.org, or by phone (415) 864-6000, and at the Davies Symphony Hall Box Office, on Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street in San Francisco. Performance: Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco
review: Lang Lang at Davies Symphony Hall
Lang Lang played Beethoven, Albeniz and Prokofiev to a sold-out audience at Davies Symphony Hall on January 18, 2011 as part of their Great Performers Series. Photo courtesy SF Symphony.
World-renowned pianist Lang Lang was in San Francisco this week for two special performances: a Davies Symphony Hall Recital on Tuesday, January 18th, under the auspices of the San Francisco Symphony’s Great Performers Series and his 101 Pianists event Monday evening at San Francisco State University in which he joined 100 young Bay Area pianists in playing Schubert’s Marche Militaire. Both events were packed to capacity.
I caught his performance at Davies Symphony Hall on Tuesday evening, my first time to hear him live. The program featured Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas No. 3 and 23; Iberia Book 1 by Isaac Albéniz; and Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 7. This was basically a run-through of the most popular sonatas from his best-selling Live in Vienna album recorded in 2008–his second live recorded recital after his best-selling Live at Carnegie Hall in 2004. It’s also a program he has been touring with.
Lang Lang, now 28, has two decades of performances and celebrity under his belt. In 2008, over five billion people watched him play in the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, where he was seen as a symbol of the youth and the future of China. He is said to have subsequently inspired over 40 million Chinese children to learn to play classical piano – a phenomenon coined by The Today Show as “the Lang Lang effect.” But as much as audiences love Lang Lang for his zeal, critics waver, praising his technical virtuosity but panning his flamboyant gyrations, interpretation and lack of emotional connection to the music.
I came expecting something bold and spectacular. I’d read that at his last concert in San Francisco, for an encore, he played Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” on his iPad using the Magic Piano app and the audience went wild. Tuesday’s performance was energetic but nowhere near what my imagination had conjured in terms of showing-off.
Lang Lang conducted a workshop with 100 young Bay Area pianists practicing Schubert's Marche Militaire at San Franacisco State University's McKenna Theatre as part of his 101 Pianists event on Monday, November 17, 2011.
Lang Lang quietly walked onto the stage, sat down at the piano and started immediately with Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, a very challenging piece. It didn’t take long for me to become immersed in the beauty of his playing. Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.3 in C major, written in 1796, in four movements, roughly 24 minutes, is often referred to as Beethoven’s first virtuosic piano sonata. It’s very demanding, especially the first movement and very emotive in the second, Adagio, movement. Lang Lang nailed the energetic second movement and then brought it to a tempered soft close.
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, the Appassionata, composed in 1804-5, followed immediately. It is widely considered one of the masterworks of the composer’s middle period, very dense, evocative and meant to be played with the unrelenting ferocity that Lang Lang is often criticized for. This was one of the first pieces written after Beethoven became fully aware of his progressive and irreversible deafness and was written during the period that he was labeled with the madman/genius image. The Appassionata was also the first piece he wrote after having received a state of the art piano as a gift from the Érard piano company. Beethoven’s statement– this is very beautiful music that is also testing the crap out of this piano, as it is my own hearing. How did Lang Lang do? Respectfully well. The piece was about twenty three minutes long. Almost immediately, I felt myself floating away on a cloud orbiting the concert hall channeling the very deep despair that Beethoven himself must have felt. When I landed, I noticed Lang Lang’s the left hand stationary in space as the right played…the right hand then slowly and weirdly directing, coaxing the left. There were moments too when he seemed to be acting with sensitivity to accentuate that he was playing with sensitivity. It looked like a guy trying way too hard to manufacture feelings he didn’t have and importantly, we felt that. And this is the core of the debate about Lang Lang. It’s completely subjective, but the antics took away from my experience of a piece played exquisitely.
The highlight came after the intermission with Albéniz’s Iberia, Book One in three movements, a century (1905-1909) and miles apart stylistically from Beethoven. From the first muted bars of Evocación to El Corpus in Sevilla, Lang Lang excelled at this beautiful and richly textured piece thought by many to have been truly mastered only by the great Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha. Book One’s three movements are typical of the entire piece—poetic middle episodes, incisive rhythms, bold harmonies, and infused with local color. Evocación is dreamlike with a very powerful climax in the middle section which Lang Lang mastered. El Corpus in Sevilla, one of Iberia’s most popular segments, employs a march tune from the Spanish town of Burgos. The great procession is at first distant and then ushered in by the piano imitating drumbeats that grow louder and louder and the excitement builds. The movement grows quieter in its mid-section, gets festive again, and then ends with a long serene coda all mystery and poetry. Lang Lang’s body movements and hand gestures punctuated the silences as well as the counter-rhythms.
He closed with Prokofiev’s revolutionary and explosive war sonata, Sonata No. 7 in B flat major, Op. 83 a piece he was clearly at ease with but passionately banged the heck out of, ending in a flurry of speed.
He encored with Rachmaninoff’s D-Major Prelude, Op. 23, No. 4, then followed with a gorgeous Chopin Etude.
In all, I came away in awe of Lang, who like Elvis, does it his way. Lang Lang was off the very next day (Wednesday) to play for President Obama and first lady, Michelle Obama, at a lavish State Dinner honoring Chinese President Hu Jintao. Lang Lang will play four-hands with Jazz legend Herbie Hancock and “My Motherland,” the theme song of a famous 1956 film called Battle on Shangganling Mountain set during the Korean war.
Details: next up in the Great Performers Series is Russian opera baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky in solo recital of songs by Fauré, Taneyev, Liszt, and Tchaikovsky on Sunday, February 13, 2011, 8 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall. Tickets: $15 to $83. Box Office: (415) 864-6000 or http://www.sfsymphony.org.
Lang Lang’s next Bay Area performance is this Sunday, January 23, 2011, 7:30 p.m., at the “Master Piano Series: an Evening with Lang Lang,” at California Theatre, 345 South First Street, San Jose. Tickets: Sold Out. Check for last minute availability.
review: Blind Boys of Alabama at Davies Symphony Hall, December 19, 2010, Bluesy Gospel for the Season
The Blind Boys of Alabama performed "Go Tell It on the Mountain" at Davies Symphony Hall on December 19, 2010. Photo: Courtesy Blind Boys of Alabama.
Last night’s performance by the the Blind Boys of Alabama at Davies Symphony Hall was magic— head-clearing, heart-opening, let loose and dance magic that got hearts pounding and spirits flowing. The Blind Boys got together way back in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind and while some of their original members have passed, they have found their way through nearly seven decades by belting out impeccable harmonies that beautifully blend old time gospel spirituals with blues, rock, reggae, and country. You may have seen them on Letterman or PBS. They have received 5 Grammy Awards, been celebrated by The Grammys and The National Endowment for the Arts with Lifetime Achievement Awards and inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. The group currently includes vocalists Jimmy Carter, Bishop Billy Bowers, and Ben Moore, and drummer Eric (Ricky) McKinnie, lead guitarist Joey Williams, and Tracy Pierce on bass. The main focus was on the core trio of vocalists, especially lead singer and founding member Jimmy Carter, a spry octogenarian, who opened by telling the audience that the Blind Boys don’t like to perform for conservative audiences. The reverie of claps and whoops in response assured him that San Francisco was cool enough to take whatever they had to offer.
Though designated a Christmas concert, the Blind Boys didn’t promote that theme too hard. Of the evening’s five holiday songs, only three were well-known standards. Ben Moore’s soft and tender delivery of “Silent Night’’ gave souls pause while “Go Tell It on the Mountain’’ was a jazzy, organ-dominated blues that got people clapping—gospel (off beat) and normal style. It was “Amazing Grace” set to the acoustic guitar chord sequence of “House of the Rising Sun” that transfixed the crowd. So unexpected was this combo, that at first it was impossible to tell there was a familiar spiritual in the lyrics. At the end of the song, founding member Jimmy Carter held a note full force for what seemed like a minute and then he did it again later– cocky and joyous. For the most part, the trio mainly remained seated front and center until it was time to step up and grab the microphone and sing and then each shimmied and rocked in his own way. Jimmy Carter told us all he was hungry and that about sums it up…these men are in their golden years but still hungry for life. During a lively rendition of “Look Where He Brought Me From,” Carter walked the aisles of the symphony hall with a string of dancing audience members in toe. While the Blind Boys might have sensed it, the crowd itself was a spectacular and wildly colorful seasonal site to behold—bold red jackets, lots of velvet, fur, and big glittery jewelry melded with traditional upper crust diamonds and tuxes. And in the upper tier, two luscious ladies tightly packed into low-cut bright red halter dresses stood on their chairs and swayed with hands raised high to heaven, evangelical style. Special guest acclaimed soul/blues singer Ruthie Foster opened the concert.
“Go Tell It on the Mountain” will next be performed in Los Angeles on December 20 (tonight) at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Details: Davies Symphony Hall annual “Holiday with the Symphony Series” runs December 2-31, 2010. The series has two remaining performances: “Twas the Night” (Wed, Dec 22, 2010 – Fri, Dec 24, 2010) and New Year’s Eve Masquerade Ball with the San Francisco Symphony (Fri, Dec 31, 2010) (For details on New Year’s Eve pre-concert dinner packages, call patron services (415) 864-6000.) (For details on special hotel packages, call (800) 441-1414. ) Tickets: www.sfsymphony.org
